OTTAWA--Possession
of hate propaganda for the purpose of
distributing it to others could soon be
a crime.

The
measure is among several planned
Criminal Code reforms aimed at
toughening laws against the spread of
hatred. The package will include
specific new penalties Reports for the
desecration of churches, cemeteries,
and other institutions -- a response to
such crimes as the spray-painting of
swastikas on gravestones and
synagogues.

It
would also include a Criminal Code
revision allowing police to seize
computer hard drives containing hate
propaganda.

Another
move would prevent those charged
with promoting hatred from using the
defence of truth based on a denial
of the Holocaust or any other
historically recognized act of
genocide.

Federal
and provincial justice ministers
quietly agreed to the changes recently
during a meeting in Regina.

"There
was unanimous support for the
principles here, that hate-motivated
violence is something that we condemn,"
said Pierre Gratton, press
secretary to Justice Minister Anne
McLellan.

Federal
justice officials are studying the
planned revisions with the aim of
bringing in legislation next year, Mr.
Gratton said yesterday.

Current
Criminal Code provisions prohibit
anyone from inciting hatred against
members of an identifiable group
distinguished by colour, race,
religion, or ethnic origin.

Under
the changes, the list of
characteristics would be expanded to
include sex, sexual orientation, age,
and mental or physical
disability.

The
new offence concerning possession would
apply to those who have hate propaganda
for the purpose of distributing it with
the intention of promoting
hate.

The
provision will make it easier to crack
down on hatemongers while
protecting the right of people to
openly discuss controversial
issues,
said Ujjal Dosanjh, British
Columbia's attorney-general, who has
been pushing for adoption of the new
measures.

"It
would preserve academic freedom,
freedom of expression and all of those
values that we cherish," Mr. Dosanjh
said yesterday in an
interview.

"Promotion
of hatred isn't a value that we cherish
as Canadians, and that's where it would
stop."

So
the Introduction of a law that
specifically strikes out truth as an
absolute defence to any charge of
defamation is not an abrogation of the
Human Rights of Canadian citizens. Time
moves on. As
we once said of British historian Dr
Cesarani, who announced that a
similar law would "actually enhance"
Freedom of Speech in England, we rather
suspect that we and BC's Mr Ujjal
Dosanjh must have learned our English
at different schools.

The article originally
posted here has been remove\d
at the request of author
Matt
Friedman, who e-mailed
this website on 11.6.99:

Please
be informed that you have
reproduced an article that
I wrote for Wired Digital
on your page at

http://www.fpp.co.uk/Online/98/11/NPost251198.html.As I hold the copyright on
this material, and as you
have neither requested nor
licensed reproduction
rights, you are in
violation of my
copyright.

Please
remove this article from
your site
immediately.

Matthew
Friedman

The article was
similar to the above,
quoting with approval
remarks by Ujjal
Dosanjh, Elissa
Leiff, senior counsel
in the Department of
Justice's Criminal Law
Policy Section, and
Bernie Farber of the
Canadian
Jewish Congress (CJC)
all of whom praised the
reforms. "The law isn't
final, but with the
wide-ranging approval we've
gotten, it's pretty close,"
said Farber, the
CJC's national director of
community relations. "We
have a concern that the Net
needs some manner of
legislation to ensure that
it's not used by
hatemongers to promote
hate."

The
above news item is reproduced without editing other
than typographical